Dark Angels
by Sandradite
Summary: Freddi, Nicole Ann, Scarlett, John and Jasmine are five Dark Angels, angels that shouldn't exist. They aren't exactly the "good" people in society... And being miraculous mythical beings doesn't help. When a normal life turns deadly... What can they do?
1. Freddi

1. Freddi

I ran from the unfamiliar. Behind me, there were cars, planes, houses, apartments, people. In front of me, freedom. I found peace among the comforting smell of pine, the enclosed space of trees, the light peering through the leaves above me. My forest was my home.

Each step I took brought me closer to my home, where I was free from arguments, from police, from the bustle of others' lives. But yet I wondered, as I did daily, if my lonesome life really was a good choice. I've always lived by myself, well not _all_ my life, because I did live with a family, once. It was a long time ago, a time I don't really remember. Living on my own, on the run, is a good thing, yet sometimes, especially after I've paid a visit to the city, I wonder how bad it would be to have someone else around.

Finally, I was running through the deep woods. I knew every step by heart. All around me, trees, animals, nature. When I reached my little clearing, my home, I was greeted by the singing of the brook, and the rustle of leaves.

I dropped my parcel of stolen objects near the stream bank, and kneeled down to rest.

A sudden crackle of a stick brought me to attention. I heard a cough, and in a quick movement, snatched the parcel up and jumped to my feet, running to the tree in which I slept.

And then I did what I do best; I hid.

But no one came. And even with my razor-sharp eyes and sense of living beings, I couldn't find anyone. It was as if a ghost was there.

I sat down near the stream, and watched my reflection and the world behind me. The only person I saw was a girl with tan skin, deep, troubled brown eyes, and reddish-brown hair. Me. I stretched my long fingers toward the water, swirling it around.

I leaned back and took a deep breath. I was home.

* * * * *

A noise woke me from my dream. I bolted straight up, and leapt to my feet. My 'tree house' floor groaned as I backed away from any place I couldn't escape from. I stifled a scream as I nearly tripped over my small pile of clothes.

I heard the tree groan as another's footsteps jumped through the branches that only squirrels, birds, and I could get through.

My heart pounded quickly, preparing me for the worst. I held my arms in front of me, ready to fight.

The mysterious thing ascended quickly, and made it up onto my board.

"Sorry for scaring you," the mystery person said, in a quick, feminine voice. I narrowed my eyes.

"You've been following me," I accused. Now that my eyes had adjusted, I could see it was a girl, standing before me. She had strong arms, dark skin, and wavy black hair. She was small and thin. She could be like me, but I knew that, realistically, no one could ever be that different. The mystery girl nodded.

"I don't know _why_, I don't _want_ to know, but however you've been following me, however you got up here," I paused for a breath. "I know how you're getting down."

I pushed her, catching her off guard, and she fell out of my sanctuary, twenty or so feet off up into the tree. It wouldn't be enough to kill anyone, I told myself. But I still looked down.

And gasped.

Because, not far below me, the mystery girl had unfurled her black wings, as dark as her hair, and flew.

And I knew that she was _exactly_ like me.

She was another angel.

She was another Dark Angel.


	2. Scarlett

**To make people as unconfused as possible, I will add this note.**

**Freddi is not the main character, she doesn't narrate the whole story. At the beginning, it tells you who narrates the story. This is Scarlett's narration.**

**Okay, that's all I have! Have fun reading!!!  
**

2. Scarlett.

I very much enjoyed the city. I fit in.

Of course, it didn't hurt that I was fourteen, taller than many girls (therefore looking older), looked completely normal, and could feel and read others' emotions.

Sometimes my gift was annoying, sometimes it helped me, but it was always who I was.

I sort of hated going to the beach. I couldn't go in the water, or anywhere for that matter, without a loose T-shirt or hoodie on. But I had a high tolerance for heat and cold, so it didn't matter that much.

The sand was pale yellow, almost white in the afternoon sun, and matched my curly hair I had pulled into a disobedient ponytail. But even as I sat near the breaking waves, I running my fingers through the sand, listening to the emotions of everyone around me, I forgot what I loved about the city.

There were all types of people there. A small child was jumping through the breaking waves as a watchful mother stood by. The child had an aura of excitement, of happiness. A couple boys played soccer, tackling each other when they didn't agree. Some teens were trying to start a volleyball game.

I looked back to the ocean. Far out, where people were floating over unbroken waves, a boy was swimming. He looked about seventeen years old, and had chocolate brown hair with sun-streaks in it. There was nothing strange about him, except that even from this distance, I could tell he was worried. His strange sense of trying to blend in didn't match the other auras around him. There would have been nothing strange about him, except he kept rolling his shoulders, and some other muscles that normal humans didn't possess, under his wet T-shirt.

I stood, and splashed into the water. I knew that motion well, well enough to know who that boy was. I was ecstatic to find another here! I knew others existed, but to find an actual other one! I felt around for his emotions again, and they were there, loud and clear. Among the excitement, and the joy, he was trying to blend in, he was afraid of getting caught.

I swam over to him, and grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the crowds. A new emotion washed over him; surprise, and knowing.

"Hello, angel," he told me. I knew he wasn't flirting. He was stating a fact. "Scarlett, am I right?"

I dropped his arm. "Yes. Normal teenager 101; don't stretch your wings constantly. It arises suspicion."

The boy laughed. "Right you are, Scarlett. Right you are."


	3. Jasmine

3. Jasmine

Ten years on my own, and now I was ready to join others.

I stepped out into the open, out of the protective grasp of darkness.

Four kids were trying to start a fire. I whispered words with no meaning to humans, and a fire grew up in front of them. I walked forward, letting my cropped black hair swing in the breeze. I let my wings hang behind me, even though the wind ruffled my jet-black feathers.

One by one, the kids looked up at me. The tall blonde girl was the first. Her skin was pale and freckled. She was the emotion-reader. Even after all my observing, I still didn't know their names.

The shorter girl with reddish hair turned. I knew her well enough, the "invisible" one. She laughed a lot with her friend, called Nana.

Nana and the boy didn't have gifts, as far as I knew. And neither of them could fly as gracefully as I could. But I knew I had to be here.

I needed the other Dark Angels.

The boy stood up, and held out his hand. I was afraid to touch it, but I did. He smiled.

"Hello, Jasmine. Welcome to our clan."

The blonde girl smiled, and moved over, making room for me to sit down.

"That is Scarlett, Freddi, Nicole Ann, and I'm John," the boy told me.

The one called Nicole Ann frowned. "It's Nana. Don't you dare call me Nicole."

"I'm Jasmine," I told them.

Freddi pointed at the fire. "You did this, am I right?"

I nodded, and whispered more fire-words. The flames danced higher, and then formed a circle with nothing in the middle. "I can manipulate fire."

Nana looked enchanted, Freddi apprehensive. John nodded, whispering something to Scarlett, who just told me, "Welcome."

3. Jasmine

Ten years on my own, and now I was ready to join others.

I stepped out into the open, out of the protective grasp of darkness.

Four kids were trying to start a fire. I whispered words with no meaning to humans, and a fire grew up in front of them. I walked forward, letting my cropped black hair swing in the breeze. I let my wings hang behind me, even though the wind ruffled my jet-black feathers.

One by one, the kids looked up at me. The tall blonde girl was the first. Her skin was pale and freckled. She was the emotion-reader. Even after all my observing, I still didn't know their names.

The shorter girl with reddish hair turned. I knew her well enough, the "invisible" one. She laughed a lot with her friend, called Nana.

Nana and the boy didn't have gifts, as far as I knew. And neither of them could fly as gracefully as I could. But I knew I had to be here.

I needed the other Dark Angels.

The boy stood up, and held out his hand. I was afraid to touch it, but I did. He smiled.

"Hello, Jasmine. Welcome to our clan."

The blonde girl smiled, and moved over, making room for me to sit down.

"That is Scarlett, Freddi, Nicole Ann, and I'm John," the boy told me.

The one called Nicole Ann frowned. "It's Nana. Don't you dare call me Nicole."

"I'm Jasmine," I told them.

Freddi pointed at the fire. "You did this, am I right?"

I nodded, and whispered more fire-words. The flames danced higher, and then formed a circle with nothing in the middle. "I can manipulate fire."

Nana looked enchanted, Freddi apprehensive. John nodded, whispering something to Scarlett, who just told me, "Welcome."


	4. Scarlett 2

4. Scarlett.

All in all, I wasn't sure how I became leader. Maybe it was because Nana and Freddi were always joking around. Maybe it was because John didn't know how to lead. Maybe it was because Jasmine was too shy to threaten us with fire. Maybe because I knew the others' emotions.

Whatever the reason, even as second youngest, I became the leader of our troop of Dark Angels.

I sat on a tree branch, observing the bustle on the other side of the forest. Nothing threatened us, and it was time for our nightly meetings. I nimbly jumped to my feet and leapt to the sky, unfurling my long, golden wings. Their black tips reflected the fading sun in blues and greens.

*****

"We have _nothing_ to eat," I proclaimed, to no one in particular.

"No more lettuce heads? Or steak?" John looked over my shoulder into the stores we'd buried in the ground near the stream.

"We have the half-frozen and barely moldy pizza," Freddi said, splashing water at Nana.

"Well , yes. How appetizing. So we're good for one more meal."

Nana nodded, her eyes squinted into the sun, and I could practically see the gears in her head turning. She was excited to know that a raid was imminent, yet, as always, a little afraid that her plan wouldn't work. Out of all of us, Nicole Ann's gift was the one that we relied on the most. Nana could plan any successful raid; she could get us all out of a prison cell with her hands and wings tied behind her back. Not that we'd tried.

"I think," she began, relaxing her black wings behind her, the red tips of them shining in the sun. "I think we'd be best off at the grocery store on 7th Avenue."

"Do you have a plan yet?" John moved toward the stream, curiously holding out his hand. Nana shrugged, and put her hand in his. I could tell she was hopeful that he would approve, and a little proud to show off her plans.

To anyone else, this action may seem normal. However, we knew that by touching someone, John could learn a lot about that person, and although he couldn't read a person's mind, his power had a lot of hidden potential.

"That could work. Are there any security cameras in the northeast wing, though?" John muttered to himself.

"Yes, two. Unless you're counting the other near the 2nd aisle in," Jasmine said, dreamily. She swept her black hair out of her eyes, but it just swung forward again.

Jasmine always seemed to be in her own little world. She thinks, daydreams, and rarely talks, except to Freddi. The think that really bugs me, or "gets my goat" as John would put it, was that her emotions were quite hidden. I had to reach and grope with my mind in order to know what was happening in Jasmine-land.

I shook my head, and looked at Nana, who was absently twirling her sheathed knife around. It was a long, thin dagger that was easily concealed. Around us, Nana kept her knife tucked in her hair, like a pen, or a needle.

"Nana, take John and Jasmine with you on your raid. Freddi and I will work on building, or laundry."

Freddi groaned, and flipped her auburn hair. Within a few seconds, she began to disappear. I felt her annoyance and boredom. "Can't _I_ go on the raid?"

I sighed, and kicked the lid of our food storage. "Freddi, you hate stealing." Freddi felt more annoyance at my being right.

"But how will we cook our un-moldy pizza? I don't like fire." Which was an excellent point.

But I knew better than to let Freddi go. Freddi didn't mind the building, but simple housework was a burden. I looked to Jasmine.

"Light a fire before you go, would you?" Jasmine nodded, once again hiding her emotions. "That's that."

Freddi forced a half-smile, and trotted off, to start more work on the tree house, I assumed.

When John and I arrived, the tree was simply supporting a board between two branches. Now we were working on a full out tree house, or at least a bunch of connected platforms.

Well, someone had to be responsible around here. I sat at the fire Jasmine was tending, and started to assemble a platform out of sticks for the pizza.

I couldn't say I hated being the leader. I loved it.


	5. Nicole Ann

5. Nicole Ann

The grocery store on 7th wasn't especially big, nore did it have minor security. But it had a lot of people, and when you want to be under the radar, crowds are good.

John, Jasmine, and I flew for exactly 4 minutes 47 seconds. During our flight, Jasmine hung behind, gazing at the clouds and earth beneath us. I perfected the plan.

Exactly a 2 minute walk from our destination, we touched down. John landed first, in his awkward stumble he hadn't quite perfected, (the rest of us had it down quite well, but John had been blending in, not living a bird's life like me) and tightly folded his wings, gold like Scarlett's, but with reddish spots, like blood, into his body. Jasmine gracefully landed, touching ground at a run, and shook out her raven-black wings before folding them in.

By the time I hit ground behind them, they were already at a run, pulling their jackets over their ripped T-shirts.

We didn't run far, for fear of drawing attention. But we walked together, and I ran over the plan again and again in my mind. Jasmine would be the one actually retrieving our food, because she was so easy for humans to miss, and also because, in case of an emergency, she could keep anyone off our tail.

John looked annoyed, nervous, a whole slew of things. I wished I had Scarlett's gift to see how he really felt. I knew he hated crowds. A simple brush against a person and he would have an overload of often indistinguishable thoughts in his head.

I reached for his hand, and let him focus on me and my thoughts, instead of the thousand strangers around us.

*****

Raphie's 7th Street Market was no different from the usual, with the exception of its good security. It was cold, stocked like a warehouse of food, and crawling with customers.

"Jasmine, you take our bags and go start with perishables. I'll start working on the security cameras, but I need you, John, to distract the guards." John nodded, and went off to ask them about something or another.

I wished I had Freddi with me, because I knew she wouldn't refuse sneaking into the security room. It would be so easy for her. But she wouldn't do any actual stealing.

As soon as the guard was supposedly 'fixing' the ATM machine to get our John's imaginary card, I walked into the security room.

Most grocery stores don't have this much security, however, Raphie's has been a site of a lot of badly planned, and some well planned, shoplifting. After a while of kids and adult thieves stealing from him, Ralphie updated his security, a lot.

I hacked into the computer easily, and entered the inventory. We'd made a list of everything we needed, and I carefully took those out of the inventory. Nothing would appear to be missing. I checked on Jasmine, who had moved onto the canned goods. She gave a thumbs up, and held up three fingers. She needed three more minutes.

John and the guard had given up on the ATM, and John was pretending to get money from it. We really should get cell phones, I thought, then I could tell him how to withdraw money.

I checked on Jasmine, who gave me the go-ahead signal. I froze the security cameras' pictures, and set it to resume in two minutes. Plenty of time.

Making sure no camera was still working, I wiped the computer keyboard to smudge my fingerprints, and opened the window, keeping my hands covered.

We met in the place we had landed four minutes later, and high-fived. Jasmine gave me a bagel, which was a surprise. John took twenty seconds later, but had some cash with him.

"John, don't pickpocket people!" I scolded.

"I didn't. It's straight from the ATM."

"How did you…?"

"You're forgetting my 'magic touch'," he said, wiggling his fingers. Of course. It worked on objects, too. I was starting to realize how annoying it must be to be him.

We were gone not much later, and Ralphie's didn't notice our stolen goods.

And the bank never figured out that a hot seventeen year old boy had taken out money without a credit card.

We were pretty amazing outlaws.


	6. Adrian

6. Adrian

Adrian sat at his computer and ran the video again. The lights were off in the room, even though he was nearly alone in the mansion. If nearly alone counted the cook, the butler, and Adrian's bodyguard.

He was studying the security camera video feed at Ralphie's. And the department store down the street. And the lumberyard. It had taken forever for each store to realize they had been robbed. And sitting in front of his computer, watching these videos, Adrian could only think that whoever had done it was very good.

Despite the fact that these thieves didn't rob anything major, from the small bit of security he could not find anyone to put on the suspect list. Adrian leaned back in his chair, yawning. It was late.

Adrian knew that if he did find this team, they'd be cheap. The fact that they were stealing from the lumberyard supported that. He didn't need cheap, but an expensive team wouldn't let him get away with his loot without them taking some.

He clicked on the play button for the ATM camera at Ralphie's, his chair creaking as he leaned forward. It was all the same, and he fast forwarded the video to five minutes before the cameras froze, and leaned back again.

How he wished he could have his grandmother here. But, then again, she would resist thievery of any kind. And if she was there, he might not need the team of thieves.

On the tape, a tan boy with milk-chocolate hair (chocolate reminded Adrian of how hungry he was) streaked with gold walked up to the ATM. With the security guard.

"I put my card in there, but it didn't give me any options," the boy complained. He looked about Adrian's age, maybe a year younger.

Adrian began to close his eyes. How very late it was! But, in the next second, he fell backwards out of his chair, wide awake at a piece of information he couldn't believe he had missed.

The boy hadn't gone to the ATM first.

He was lying.

Adrian rewound the video to be sure, and grabbed a paper and pen and started jotting down notes.

He had found one of his thieves.


End file.
